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NPR Station in Chicago Scraps Jazz for News, Talk

Chicago’s last major source for jazz programming on local radio, Chicago’s National Public Radio member station WBEZ, has decided to stop its nightly jazz and other scheduled music programming and move to a 24-hour news and public affairs format, reports Reuters (via News.com). The change points to the problems facing independent radio stations in the age of downloadable music and streaming websites.

The station’s switch, which has been heavily protested by local fans of the jazz format, has mirrored other such changes across the country. A public radio station in Connecticut, WNPR FM, dropped most of its classical programming in favor of news and information earlier this summer, while one in Washington, D.C., made a similar switch more than a year ago, as have stations in Boston and New York.

Chicago Public Radio took a good look at demographic trends before making the shift to talk, the article says, and found that the station’s audience had become increasingly homogenous - most are white, upper middle class and well-educated - but that public radio is compelled by a federal mandate to serve as broad a group of listeners as possible.

The station will also broadcast a new public service on 89.5 FM throughout metropolitan Chicago, Northwest Indiana, and stream it online for even wider audiences, writes Torey Malatia, president and general manager, in a letter to listeners. ” It will be a celebration of the richness of the neighborhoods and surrounding communities of Chicago - every day - through cultural expression, discussion and debate, music and art and narrative.” At the same time, he writes, “we will convert 91.5 FM Chicago into a full 24-hour news and information station.”